Tunisia recovers 27 migrant bodies off shore

Tunisian authorities have reportedly recovered the bodies of 27 migrants off various shores of the Mediterranean coastline; they had seemingly drowned while attempting to reach Italy shores from Libya.

Tunisian security official Mongi Kadhi stated Saturday that the country’s naval and civil protection units discovered the migrants between July 3 and10 off the shores of the coastal cities of Ben Guerdane and Zarzis, near the nation’s border with Libya, AP reported.

Kadhi further noted that the recovered corpses appeared to be African migrants.

The development came as the number of the migrants trying to make the risky journey across the Mediterranean toward the European coastlines has continued to climb in recent weeks although the casualty figures have been dropping as an apparent result of renewed coordinated rescue efforts by European Union countries.

This is while the International Organization for Migration announced on Friday that thousands of stranded migrants and refugees had been rescued in the past 24 hours in the canal of Sicily, despite strong winds in the area.

Meanwhile, European Union leaders agreed last month to redistribute 40,000 asylum-seekers already in Europe to help take the load off countries like Greece and Italy.

However, many EU states are strongly opposed to the mandatory entry of refugees and say they would help on a voluntary basis.

Most of the refugees who risk their lives to reach Europe are fleeing from misery-stricken conflict zones in the Middle East and Africa.

Libya has a coastline of 1,770 kilometers and has long served as a staging area for African migrants seeking to sail towards Europe with hopes of having a better life.